With song titles like 'Wielder Of The Demon Blades' and ' Bestial Raids Of Antichrist Darkness' and a stark black Satanic line drawing on blood red background for the cover, it was safe enough to assume that I was in bestial, underground black metal territory with these Texans. This is their fourth full length in a ten year history, amidst demos, eps and splits (including one with Sargeist) so they certainly have been putting in the tough work.
So do they have anything to offer than a road drill riff?
Fuck yes, I am pleased to say.
' Anointed In Serpents Blood' begins with a squall of noise and screams before the downtuned riff hammers out a brutally simple but effective bit of destructive black metal. Nothing fancy, just an attention grabber like a boot in the face, kind of clearing the decks for 'Goathorned Messiah Of The 7 Gates'.
Here the riff descends to the kind of thick black tar where you'd find Teitanblood beginning. Layers of vocals snarl and retch over the riff ride, taints of death metal rounding out the black racket but even better is the structure. From the thrashy black death speedball to a slow doom crawl that slowly winds back up into a mid pace but utterly feral black metal spit and bite, this is a compelling bit of darkness.
There is even er... melody deep in this belligerent album. No don't worry; I'm talking relative sounds here. This is melody with hooks in the way that Sargeist work it, or some classic Norwegian cold riffs, but buried so deep in layers of tar so that your average Dimmu Borgir fan would hear only the low rumbling racket. Most apparent on ' Wielder of the Demon Blades' it's kind of like being sliced amidst the blunt force trauma and works well. It begins in the juddering noise of the intro, is swallowed by the grim grinding riff before turning that sound into a thick, filthy hook that drags your sorry carcass into the mire.
When they go slow, like in the eerie 'Rebel Hymns' it's a sinister and haunting sound. With the whipcrack samples it almost comes on like a black metal Danzig circa 'Sadistikal' before being swallowed by the relentless guitars once more.
Even when just heads down going for the grind on ' Throes Of Oblivion' there's purpose and the sudden drop into a sparse primitive slow drumbeat is breathing space just to allow the wounds inflicted to hurt more.
It closes with the strange Death Of Divinity which morphs from a noisescape that could be from the hinterlands of The Axis of Perdition, through a Khanate like drag in the filth to a haunting, repetitive, creaking melody that crawls away to die.
This is a seriously good album of underground black metal; unrelenting, dense, aggressive stuff with a sense of pacing that too often escapes less talented practitioners. It has imagination, variety and utter self belief which helps them create memorable songs without any concession. The perfect response to anyone who believes that this dank end of BM is populated by guys who know only one riff.
If you don't give these lone star rebels a look you are missing out on some seriously good hymns of Southern darkness.
http://www.myspace.com/bahimiron
http://www.bahimiron.com
Gizmo
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